Instrument for cutting photographs



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THEODORE BEBGNER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

INSTRUMENT FOR CUTTING PHOTOGRAPHS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 46,066, dated January 31, 1865.

To to whom it may concern.-

Be it known that l, THEODORE BERGNER, of the city of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Instrument for Cutting Out Photographs and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the figures and letters of reference marked thereon.

The object of my invention is to provide a more perfect and expeditious means than ordinarily used for cutting photographicpr1nts to any required shape and size preparatory to mounting on card-board.

In my improved instrument the heretoforeemployed ordinary knife-blade or knife-edged cutter is avoided, the paper being separated by a shearing action of very durably-arranged cutting-edges, which will very keenly cut an almost unlimitednumber of photographs without dulling (one of the instruments in use havin g cut upward of eighty thousand carte de visite pictures without being resharpened but the most important feature of my invention consists in combining with this method of cutting a very perfect means of examining and correctly adjusting the position and outline of i the picture to be out.

Another feature of my improvement consists in the employment of a system of gages for adapting the instrument to the correct and rapid cutting out of stereoscopic (duplicate) pictures.

In order that my said invention may be fully understood, I will now proceed more particularly to describe the construction and operation of the same.

On reference to the drawings, which form a part of this specification, and in which similar letters of reference allude to like parts throughout the several views, Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of my improved instrument, and Fig. 2 is a plan of the same.

A is a steel plate, shaped to the exact size and form of the pictures to be cut in the instrument. It acts as a punch, and is accurately fitted into the larger steel plates, B and O, of which the upper one, B, is the shear or die, against which. A cuts by upward motion, while 0 serves as an accurate guide for the punch-plate A. The plates B and O are securely held in proper relative position by the screws D D, and a shallow intervening space is formed by interjacent metallic strips F 1*. Into this space the photograph to be cut is inserted from either end, the printed side upward, and so adjusted as to properly arrange the position and outlines of the picture within the opening in B, the latter acting as a frame or gage, exposing to convenient view a surface of the exact shape and size required. The picture is then cut out by depressing the handlever G, the short arm g of which elevates the plunger H, and with it the punch A, the latter being secured to the top surface of H by a screw, h. A casting, I, is the main support for the difierent working parts of the instrument, and is provided with projections K and L, limiting the amount of motion of lever G.

On reference to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the punch represented is of the shape and size required for stereoscopic pictures, which are printed and afterward mounted in pairs and require to be accurately matched. For this purpose I have provided the dieplate B on one side with a projection, b, the upper edge of which is on a line with the bottom edge of the picture-space, and therefore facilitates the leveling of both pictures by spacing any object or point on the same equidistant from both levels.

When the first picture has been cut out and the second one is to be adjusted, theobject previously spaced by the projection I) is again placed in the same relative position to the lower cutting-edge, while the bottom wastestrip from the first picture is brought in cont not with a projection, 0, on C, also in line with the other two leveling edges."

It will be readily understood that the mechanical arrangement of my improved instrument may be variously modified without impairing my invention. The punch A may be permanent and movement given to the outside plates, B and O, the advantages as to examinin g and adjusting the pictures remaining the same.

The shape and size of the punch may be varied without limit, as well as the application of devices for giving motion to the punch. Instead of actuating the same by hand, it may (as I have already done in practice) he operated by means of a foot-treadle, whereby uninterrupted use of both hands for inserting 1. The described instrument for cutting out photographs, when its punch A, die B, and guide-plate C operate as set forth, and are relatively so arranged as to facilitate accurate adjustment of the picture to be cut out, substantially as specified.

2. -In combination with the described instrument, the use of gages b and 0, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

THEODORE BERGNER.

Witnesses COLEMAN SnLLERs, VVILLIAM HOWARD. 

